[SOLVED] Linux Flash question

Mr Marmmalade · 06-18-2014, 01:29 PM

Hi,

I seem to be having some bother with flash not playing on bbc.co.uk & telegraph.co.uk. I've recently re-installed my system so I'm half-thinking I've done something wrong but I've tried the usual adobe one & also gnash and some other, but gnash etc. just doesn't seem to work in any case. I have noticed that Iceweasel was able to play some flash pages, e.g. YouTube on its own without any flash player manually being installed; it initially says no flash player installed but then it kicks in & plays anyway.

I'm wondering does Iceweasel v24.6.0 now have some sort of half-working flash player built in? My system is Debian Wheezy 64bit & is all up to date. If it does, I'm thinking it may be conflicting with the libflashplayer.so that I normally download & dump into ./mozilla/plugins? I've re-downloaded it a few times so it isn't a bad file.

I'm also aware that Adobe dropped linux support at v11.2 - it might be the case that these websites now require a higher version (v14 I think is the latest), is there a way to tell what version is required on a website, other than just assuming it is when it doesn't work?

Thanks.

Hungry ghost · 06-18-2014, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Marmmalade

I'm wondering does Iceweasel v24.6.0 now have some sort of half-working flash player built in?

Maybe it's using html5, which doesn't need any type of flash plugin.

Quote:

My system is Debian Wheezy 64bit & is all up to date. If it does, I'm thinking it may be conflicting with the libflashplayer.so that I normally download & dump into ./mozilla/plugins? I've re-downloaded it a few times so it isn't a bad file.

I think the best way is to install the package flashplugin-nonfree directly from the repositories (you will need to add nonfree to your sources.list). That's what I always do and have never had issues. If you install it from the repos, you will need to remove libflashplayer.so from .mozilla/plugis. You will also need to uninstall gnash, since it's either one or the other.

Quote:

I'm also aware that Adobe dropped linux support at v11.2 - it might be the case that these websites now require a higher version (v14 I think is the latest), is there a way to tell what version is required on a website, other than just assuming it is when it doesn't work?

I'm not sure about this last point, but I think the current flash plugin for linux works on most websites (it works for me, at least). In case you still have issues after installing flashplugin-nonfree, you could use Google Chrome, which AFAIK has its own internal flash plugin. (I don't like Google Chrome, but in case you can't use flash websites with any other browser, it's the last resource).

Mr Marmmalade · 06-18-2014, 04:38 PM

Thanks for the reply.

Quote:

Originally Posted by odiseo77

Maybe it's using html5, which doesn't need any type of flash plugin.

Bingo, that explains that weirdness! Right-click & context menu mentions HTML5, thanks. If only every website changed to HTML5.

Quote:

Originally Posted by odiseo77

I think the best way is to install the package flashplugin-nonfree directly from the repositories (you will need to add nonfree to your sources.list). That's what I always do and have never had issues. If you install it from the repos, you will need to remove libflashplayer.so from .mozilla/plugis. You will also need to uninstall gnash, since it's either one or the other.

I'm getting a message when trying to install this.

Code:

link to Adobe Flash Player not found on http://www.adobe.com/ at get-upstream-version.pl line 57.
ERROR: failed to get upstream version
More information might be available at:
  http://wiki.debian.org/FlashPlayer

Possibly the server is down. Found this bug posted today about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by odiseo77

I'm not sure about this last point, but I think the current flash plugin for linux works on most websites (it works for me, at least). In case you still have issues after installing flashplugin-nonfree, you could use Google Chrome, which AFAIK has its own internal flash plugin. (I don't like Google Chrome, but in case you can't use flash websites with any other browser, it's the last resource).

I'd rather stick to Iceweasel if I can so I'll keep trying things with it. I'm aware there is a 'pepperflash' plugin for it which is the only flash version higher than 11.2 available for linux.

Hungry ghost · 06-18-2014, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Marmmalade

Possibly the server is down. Found this bug posted today about it.

Yes, maybe it's down. I'd try again tomorrow to see if it works and check the bug report to see if someone posts any workaround.

Cheers!

jdkaye · 06-19-2014, 05:56 AM

Code:

sudo apt-get  install flashplayer-mozilla

That should get it for you.
jdk

jochenf · 06-19-2014, 08:54 AM

I analyzed the update-flashplugin-nonfree script and found that they get a page from adobe.com and grab a link url to flashplayer from that page with a regex search. Since Adobe modified this page, the regex search fails and the script cannot locate flashplayer.

As a workaround you have to download the flashplayer manually as tar.gz file, unpack it and follow the readme.

copy libflashplayer.so to /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so

symlink it to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/flash-mozilla.so

ln -s /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/flash-mozilla.so

That did it for me.

Mr Marmmalade · 06-19-2014, 03:25 PM

Thanks jochenf, that is good to know how to do that workaround. But it gets me back to the same situation of flash only working on some sites, so it might just be that they require a newer version, or possibly are tied into iplayer.

jdkaye · 06-20-2014, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Marmmalade

Thanks jochenf, that is good to know how to do that workaround. But it gets me back to the same situation of flash only working on some sites, so it might just be that they require a newer version, or possibly are tied into iplayer.

It might help if you posted a few of the sites where your flashplayer (11.2 I assume) does not work. Then you could confirm that there's nothing wrong with your set up.
jdk

Mr Marmmalade · 06-21-2014, 06:37 AM

Some examples:

Does work: Reuters,pinkbike,techradar

Doesn't work: telegraph, bbc.

Mr Marmmalade · 06-21-2014, 06:43 AM

Hah, disabling https-everywhere plugin fixes the BBC website issue (it must want to know your regional location to enable content or something). I'm now testing other things to see if can sort out telegraph.

Mr Marmmalade · 06-21-2014, 06:51 AM

Aaaand enabling cookies on telegraph fixes that website.
D'oh! Sorry for the silly question, nothing to do with flash, all to do with browser + plugin settings, problem solved! Thanks for everyone's input!

jdkaye · 06-21-2014, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Marmmalade

Hah, disabling https-everywhere plugin fixes the BBC website issue (it must want to know your regional location to enable content or something). I'm now testing other things to see if can sort out telegraph.

I'm not sure https-everywhere is the villain. I've got it enabled and no problem with BBC nor with the Telegraph (on this issue). The Grauniad is another story. I can't watch any of their videos because I have Adblock Plus enabled.
jdk

Mr Marmmalade · 06-21-2014, 01:48 PM

https-everywhere does seem to be the problem for me: if i search the rules, there are 2 for BBC. One 'BBC (partial)' I have to put a cross against this one, and the 'BBC.com (false MCB) only for mixed content' I have to put a tick against this one. Then it works.

Grauniad haha, never heard of that! It works for me, just tried it. I changed to AdblockEdge from AdblockPlus, because 'Plus allows some adverts from selected partners.